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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Hobbes identify as the two ways one can hold sway over others?
(a) charisma and intelligence
(b) power and control
(c) money and gifts
(d) counsel and command

2. What results are there when an actor makes a contract?
(a) The author is also bound.
(b) The contract is invalid.
(c) The contract must be approved.
(d) The author is not bound to it.

3. Why does Hobbes say that having friends, followers, and servants is the greatest power?
(a) Having these, one does not need anything else.
(b) With friends, followers, and servants one does not need to work.
(c) Having these, one does not need to go to war.
(d) Being liked and respected makes people good managers and motivators.

4. What two factors does Hobbes believe control mental discourse?
(a) Desire and fear
(b) Education and experience
(c) Vocabulary and definitions
(d) Love and hate

5. What is a fundamental interest on the part of a counselor?
(a) to hide his motives
(b) to deceive the people
(c) for the good of those that he counsels
(d) to get his own way

6. How does Hobbes classify a person who speaks for himself?
(a) As a politician
(b) As an author
(c) As a diplomat
(d) As a boaster

7. How may a commonwealth be formed?
(a) the first is by experience and the second is by heredity
(b) the first is by election and the second is by popularity
(c) the first is by natural force or acquisition and the second is by mutual agreement.
(d) the first is by inheritance and the second is by accident

8. What does Hobbes say about controlling thoughts?
(a) People cannot always do it.
(b) People learn to do it at an early age.
(c) Thought should not be controlled.
(d) The commonwealth controls thoughts.

9. What do counsels for the aristocracy generally do?
(a) Serve no useful purpose
(b) Excite the multitude to create change
(c) Offer plans for governing change
(d) Last for days or even months

10. What example does Hobbes give to support his idea that just banding together is not enough for protection?
(a) A hundred rabbits can scare a hunter.
(b) Twenty sheep cannot fight off a pack of wolves.
(c) A flock of birds cannot defeat the cat.
(d) Two families joined are not powerful enough to combat three families.

11. How does Hobbes describe his compound imagination?
(a) Like seeing an appl and an orange and imagining a melon
(b) Like seeing a dog and a cat and imagining a kangaroo
(c) Like seeing a man and a horse and imagining a centaur
(d) Like seeing a carriage and a house and imagining a train

12. What kind of idea does Hobbes classify as good wit?
(a) one that everyone can agree to
(b) one so unique that nobody else would have thought of it
(c) one open to argument and debate
(d) one that produces only good results

13. Why does Hobbes insist that the commonwealth is born out of human politics?
(a) It is established on scientific principles only.
(b) It is established on the basis of the good of the soverign.
(c) It is established on a basis of faith in God.
(d) It is established in obedience, laws, peace, charity and civil society

14. In his comparison of the commonwealth to the body, what does Hobbes identify as the role of the sovereign?
(a) the father of the commonwealth, which is his responsibility
(b) the head of the commonwealth, which is the mind
(c) the soul of the commonwealth, which is the body
(d) the spine of the commonwealth, which keeps it erect

15. How does Hobbes classify the person or group of people who have someone speak for them?
(a) As actors
(b) As helpless
(c) As uneducated
(d) As dummies

Short Answer Questions

1. What is needed to be able to judge what is just or unjust?

2. How does Hobbes define injustice of an action?

3. To be sure one has found reason, what is necessary?

4. Who does Hobbes insist is of the greatest value to a commonwealth?

5. What does Hobbes identify as three basic human fears?

(see the answer keys)

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